April Fool's Day/Trivia
*While Arnold and Helga are dancing the Tango, Arnold seems to flirt with Helga, hinting that he's now more comfortable with her since finding out her secret in Hey Arnold! The Movie. During his second interview on The Arun Mehta Show, Craig Bartlett himself confirmed that during the Tango scene, Arnold was indeed flirting with Helga. *Arnold says Helga's birthday was "last week", meaning that Helga was born roughly around March 25th. It's generally agreed that her birthday is on March 26th, the same day as her voice actress, Francesca Smith's birthday. *This is the only holiday episode that actually aired on the day of its respective holiday. *Both Harold & Patty and Rhonda & Curly are seen dancing together, so it's shown that they have come to the dance together. *Continuing the running gag of Pookie confusing her holidays, she thinks April Fools Day is Groundhog's Day, and when she sees her shadow it means twelve more weeks of Christmas. *The music that plays during the credits is reused from the credits of "Grandpa's Packard". *Final appearance of Principal Wartz. *For a long time, this was one of several specials to not be apart of TeenNick's rotation on The Splat until Valentine's Day of 2017 when this episode along with "Married" and "Arnold's Valentine" aired. However the second half of the episode did not air for unknown reasons (most likely due to it being aired at the wrong time, although it was included on TV listings), similar to what happened with "The Racing Mule" in 2002. **It finally aired in it's complete form (with both segments intact) on the morning of April Fool's Day of that same year. * At the April Fools Day Dance, Patricia "Big Patty" Smith and Harold Berman are shown to be dancing together this is the second time that they’ve danced together, the first time they danced together was in the episode Hey Harold! The pair danced with each other on Rhonda’s porch at Rhonda’s co-ed party. *Helga becomes a leading villain for the seventeenth time. **The previous sixteen times she became a leading villain were "The Little Pink Book", "Arnold's Hat", "Helga's Makeover", "Operation Ruthless", "The Sewer King", "Magic Show", "24 Hours to Live", "Biosquare", "What's Opera, Arnold?", "Arnold's Halloween", "Girl Trouble", "Parents Day", "Love and Cheese", "Helga's Masquerade", "Big Sis", and "Hey Arnold!: The Movie". Cultural References *Gerald states that Arnold is too "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind" for April Fool's Day. Those characteristics are 6 of the 12 laws, in order, of Boy Scouts of America's 'Scout Law'. *The YMAA's gym floor can be opened up to get access to the pool. This is a reference to the dance scene in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. Story Analysis If this episode is watched under the mindset that Arnold knows Helga loves him, some parts (besides the tango scene) can be interpreted differently. *Arnold seems to get annoyed at Helga's pranks quicker than usual, and it does not take much for him to decide to retaliate. This could be caused by the fact that he knows everything Helga's doing to him is unnecessary torment to hide her feelings for him, which is now pointless, as he already knows. *It seems that Arnold used his knowledge of Helga's love for him to prank her. He mentioned her actual birthday when giving her the gift box, possibly knowing that Helga wouldn't refuse a genuine present from him. *This would add an extra layer of guilt on Arnold, and also explain why Helga torments him so relentlessly for the rest of the episode; she's getting back at him for playing her like that. Production Notes *Although this episode premiered on April 1, 2002, it was actually made in 2001 according to the credits. It is also the first episode produced in 2001. Category:April Fool's Day Category:Episode trivia